the trading concerns of India, and the tract itfelf, being of fuch high antiquity, muft prove very interesting to the commercial reader. The toll-prices at the different ferries on the Indian rivers are then stated with equally minute precifion.

"The toll at a ferry is one pana for an empty cart; half a pana, for a man with a load; a quarter, for a beaft ufed in agricul ture, or for a woman; and an eighth, for an unloaded man." Ibid.

"Waggons, filled with goods packed up, fhall pay toll in proportion to their value; but for empty veffels and bags, and for poor men ill-apparelled, a very small toll fhall be demanded." Ibid.

In the following article refpecting freightage, there is a moft remarkable paffage, which greatly arrefted the attention of the tranflator, fince it decidedly proves that 1200, if not 1500, years before Chrift, the Indians, not lefs than the Phoenicians, navigated the vaft ocean. It is as follows:

"For a long paffage, the freight muft be proportioned to places and time; but this must be understood of paffages up and down rivers: AT SEA THERE CAN BE NO SETTLED FREIGHT."

3

Ibid.

" Whatever

"Whatever fhall be broken in a boat, by the fault of the boatmen, fhall be made good by those men collectively, each paying his portion." Ibid,

"This rule, ordained for such as pass rivers in boats, relates to the culpable neglect of boatmen on the water; in the cafe of inevitable accident, there can be no damages recovered." Ibid.

It is not, however, only the freightage neceffary to be paid for carriage of goods by fea that is thus particularized, for, in another place, we find a law relating to the intereft which the merchant was, by mutual agree、 ment, bound to pay for the commodity exported.

"Whatever intereft, or price of the rifk, fhall be fettled between the parties by men WELL ACQUAINTED WITH SEA-VOYAGES, or journies by land, with times and with places, fuch intereft fhall have legal force," P. 210.

If the reader fhould be anxious to know what were the articles bartered in this traffic, I answer whatsoever a great, flourishing, and established, empire could produce, and many which it did not produce; as gold, filver, lead, copper, and TIN; articles of commerce which

they seem to have poffeffed immemorially, and in great abundance, when the reft of the world was but very fcantily supplied with them. As to precious gems, diamonds, rubies, and pearls, they were the native growth of their own rich country; the firft came from the mines of Soumelpore, on the Adamas river; the fecond from those of Pegu; the third from the celebrated fisheries on the fhores of the Peninsula and Ceylone. The fame luxuriant and fertile foil alfo produced to the Indians fandal, cinnamon, faffron, and all the other rich and odoriferous woods that grow in the fragrant forests and gardens of Afia, though not in the unbounded plenty in which they' required them for various uses, facred and civil; for the magnificent temple, and the fplendid palace.

Many of thefe latter, therefore, were conftantly imported from Arabia to cherish the never-dying fires that blazed on the altars of their deities; for only the most costly aromatics, inflamed by a profufion of rich gums and clarified butter, are there allotted to feed the facrificial flame. Medicinal drugs, also, of the most powerful efficacy, and perfumes of the rareft kind, were the fpontaneous gift of their prolific foil. In caffia, bezoar, ben

zoin, ftorax, gum-lac, they immemorially drove a flourishing trade; and the aloes, the mufk, the fpikenard, the civet, and the camphire, of India, are ftill unrivalled. The commerce for the former was principally carried on through the Northern foobah of Cabul, a region ever famous for its aromas and the rich botanical stores of every species which its delicious climate produces, and in which, independent of its general commerce, it maintained an extenfive provincial traffic with Perfia: the latter were, in general, the productions of the warm fouthern provinces and the Peninfula, whence they were as abundantly ex→ ported to the West.

If, turning over the pages of the fame volume, we examine the mechanical arts and infinite manufactures of this ancient nation, we find them engraving on the hardest ftones, and working in the most difficult metals; giving the most beautiful polifh to the diamond, an art fuppofed not to be known till the 15th century; inchafing in gold, and working in ivory and ebony, with inimitable elegance. In weaving, spinning, and dying; in all the more ingenious devices appertaining to the respective occupations of the joiner, the cutler, the mason, the potter, and the japanner;

V 4

panner; in executing the most curious cabinet and filligree work; in drawing birds, flowers, and fruits, from the book of nature with exquifite precifion; in painting those beautiful chintzes annually brought into Europe, that glow with fuch a rich variety of colours, as brilliant as they are lasting; in the fabrication of those ornamental vases of agate and chryftal, inlaid with the richest gems, that con❤ flitute fo large a portion of the fplendid merchandize of India with the neighbouring empires of Afia; in fhort, in whatever requires an ingenious head or a ductile hand, what people on earth, in those remote or in thefe modern times, has ever vied with the Indians?

What polished nation is not, or has not been, indebted to the loom of India, and the labours of the Indian mechanic, for the choiceft rarities of household-furniture, and apparel of the finest and most splendid texture? Her rich callicoes, plain or flowered, applied to a thousand domestic and perfonal ufes both in Europe and Afia;-her gold and filver brocades;*-and her carpets and ta

pestry

*Although the ufe of Eaft-India wrought filk is now prohibited for the wife purpose of encouraging our own manufactures in that line, yet how